The Problems of Trans-Dimensional Travel and Unfulfilled Prophecies
by Magic Maryse
Summary: The war rages on and events take a turn for the worst when certain characters die before they can fulfill their part of the story. Elena Hopkins, Head of the Department for Trans-Dimensional Travel, is faced with the most challenging task of her life when she has to take down the wards that protect the dead to bring Harry Potter and his friends to the Between to save them.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone!**

 **I hope you`ve all had a nice Christmas and New Year celebrations! :)**

 **I`ve been busy again with all the planning for my semester abroad and am working on my stories again now. This is something new I`d like to try as it`s been on my mind for a couple of weeks now and I finally managed to write it down.**

 **This is sort of the prologue and it`s rather short, the other chapters are going to be longer, promise! ;) Basically, this story is going to be a "Reading the Harry Potter books"-story which I have wanted to do for a very long time but never knew how to start... So, yeah...**

 **I hope you enjoy reading the first part and let me know what you think! :)**

* * *

Being Head of the Department for Trans-Dimensional Travel was by no means an easy task, that much had been obvious from her first day after being promoted. What the lower employees of the Ministry of Magical Death thought to be an exciting job full of fascinating meetings and stories of the deceased who passed through the barriers or retrieving wanderers gone astray, was nothing more than a lot of paperwork and little to do with travelling. In reality, Elena Hopkins had spent over ninety-five percent of her ten-thousand years as Head of the Department filling in a vast amount of different forms and writing reports that were stored in the archives. Each case had to be treated differently and each file had a little flag attached to it that, depending on the case, was either green, white, red or black.

The green files were the easiest ones and, luckily, the most frequent ones. They belonged to souls who accidentally ended up in the Between but had legal clearance to pass through the final barrier.

A white flag meant that the traveler had been selected to work for the Ministry but those cases were extremely rare given the long "life" span of the current employees and did not land on Elena`s desk unless there was a problem at the gate.

Files with a red flag attached to them always meant a lot, a lot of paperwork and were directly connected to long and exhausting court trials that awaited criminals. Unfortunately, there had been a lot of red flags as of lately. An unusual occurrence that Elena had reported to her immediate superior, the Minister, himself.

A slight fluctuation in red flags was considered normal as the number of criminals among humans varied within each generation. The drastic rise in the twentieth century, however, drew the attention of everyone at the Ministry when the number of reported deaths went up in an equally fast fashion.

Elena thought of the massive file of the man who was now known as Lord Voldemort, a name that instilled so much fear in peoples` minds that no-one even dared speak it out aloud.

A shiver ran down her spine when she remembered the first time she had met him in the Between; a mere shadow of his former self after suffering his first defeat by the hands of a little boy, but still powerful enough that even the most vicious souls avoided him.

The Ministry had not been able to bring him through the barrier and so the scheme of his rotten soul had spent almost fourteen years in the darkest corner of the realm, desperately clinging to whatever living form it could reach.

Creating a horcrux was considered one of the most disgusting things and major crimes in society; splitting one`s soul into six parts, however, was beyond everything Elena had ever witnessed. No wizard, no matter how powerful and evil the spirit, had dared take this final step so drastically far that their own body resembled more an animal than a human being.

There had been plenty of emergency meetings of the Ministry representatives and all of them had come to the same result; Voldemort had to be stopped at all costs. His mere existence was against every natural order in the cosmos and threatened to create more chaos than could be dealt with.

Death, as much as people feared it, was part of the circle of life and an unavoidable necessity to establish a balance between the living and the dead. Some lives were shorter than others, deaths of a more or less evil nature occurred but everything had its order; even if people mourned the tragic loss of their loved ones, the time of every death was predicted by one of the many diviners working for the ministry and was, once registered, final.

Now, however, wizards and witches came to the realms who died long before their predicted times, their deaths causing utter chaos in the realm of Death.

Elena sighed and wearily eyed the pile of papers on the desk in front of her. The overtimes alone were a nightmare! And, as if that weren`t already enough, they were running out of staff! Too many souls to register, too many to bring through the barriers and too many to keep track of!

Another sigh escaped her lips, a sound that had become more and more frequent as of lately. She didn't need a lot of sleep, which was one of the many benefits of being dead, but even the Undead had their limits.

 _Crack!_

Elena almost jumped out of her skin when the Minister suddenly appeared in her cramped office and sat down on the chair opposite of hers.

"Minister Evreux!" She exclaimed after regaining her composure. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

The elderly man twirled his navel-long beard in his boney fingers, the only sign of nervousness displayed on the outside while watching her intensely with his black, sparkling eyes.

The Minister was not an overly friendly man, even though his long beard and round glasses gave exactly that impression. Elena, however, was not fooled by his appearance and always maintained a neutral expression whenever he was around, or, in other words, she didn't like him very much.

"I`m afraid, Miss Hopkins, things don't go according to plan," the Minister said, stilling his movements.

"I am aware of that, sir," she answered with a nod.

Evreux shook his head. "That's not what I meant, Miss Hopkins. Matters have taken a turn for the worst… I… _We_ cannot wait any longer. The boy must know the truth or this war will be lost…"

"Sir?" Elena asked bewildered.

"Severus Snape was reported dead at exactly 8:30 pm this evening." He stood up and walked over to the lone window, then turned around to face her again and clasped his hands behind his back. "Unless we act immediately, the prophecy will not be fulfilled. Harry Potter must know the truth about what has to be done and what was done in the past, otherwise a disaster beyond our imagination will occur. You know what to do, Miss Hopkins. Do not disappoint me."

With that, the Minister disapparated with a loud _Crack_ , leaving behind a speechless Head of Department.

 _You know what has to be done._

Yes, she knew. What she was about to do was forbidden under normal circumstances and it was dangerous, _very_ dangerous. If she failed, Earth would delve into chaos, bringing the Ministry of Magical Death down to its knees as well.

For Elena Hopkins, Head of the Department of Trans-Dimensional Travel, was about to take down the wards that protected the dead to bring Harry Potter and his friends to the Between.


	2. Chapter 2

It has taken me some time to write this chapter because I had a lot going to with exams and so on and because I was stuck with the story. I haven't written anything in a while and am a bit out of practice but still hope that you'll enjoy the chapter. :) It's something I have wanted to do in a very long time and I'm excited to finally have an idea how to start with it!

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Time was running short, Elena could almost feel the seconds pass by in her head – _tick, tock, tick, tock_ ….

Before she could bring down the wards, she had to find a save place where they could hide while the three of them stayed in the Between.

Despite the realm`s seemingly endless space, it was surprisingly hard to find a hideout. The place had to be in a location that would be hard to reach for those souls who craved the living and the elixir of life they would present to them if they got close enough.

Since the amount of magic that was necessary to bring down and reestablish the wards was enormous, Elena wouldn't be strong enough to hold more than ten souls at bay at once and neither of the three wizards could deal with the dead, not while still being alive.

Water, she thought. She needed water; preferably fast moving water.

"The Spiral River," Elena breathed and a smile played at her lips. "Ellie, you`re a genius!"

The dead detested moving water more than anything else; mostly, because they couldn`t walk on it but also because the current would sweep them away instantly if they tried to cross.

There were many rivers in the Between but the Spiral River, which received its name due to the spiral form of its current, was the biggest and deadliest one that had been discovered. There even was a small island in the middle of it, Cauldron Isle. The cottage on it would serve their purpose perfectly and, if covered with enough charms, would also keep away other unwanted intruders than merely a few vicious souls.

Elena, already dressed in her grey traveling coat and matching suit, rearranged her long, black hair with a flick of her wand so it was spun in a tight bun and nodded at her reflection in the mirror with a pleased smile.

With one last glance at her room in the north tower of the Ministry, she apparated as close to Cauldron Isle as the wards allowed her before crossing the border to the Between.

Stepping through the wards – only the Head of the Department of Trans-Dimensional Travel and employees with special permits had the authority to do that – felt like stepping through an ice-cold waterfall, only without getting wet. Despite having travelled to the Between on more than one occasion, Elena could never quite get used to the feeling and avoided visits to the realm whenever it was possible.

Being inside the wards now, she could move around freely again and quickly scanned her surroundings for possible threats. When she only found a group of five harmless souls below an old oak tree three miles in the west, Elena decided that it was safe to immediately apparate to Cauldron Isle.

After all, she had no time to lose.

The island was as small as she remembered and the old cottage in the middle looked as shabby as when she`d last seen it two-hundred years ago. Thorny bushes and ivy grew along the walls of the building, shielding it from plain view and despite her good memory Elena had trouble finding the entrance beneath all of it.

Inside, the cottage was more spacious than it actually appeared and even though the entrance hall was indeed rather small, the living room could easily hold up to twenty people. There were four large sofas in the right corner in the back of the room that formed a square around a round wooden table. The fireplace on the left side, framed by two armchairs on each side, was empty and desperately needed cleaning; just like the rest of the building.

The dining room was just around the corner; a long table with at least a dozen chairs and a small chandelier in the center, occupied the entire space.

There were no pictures or portraits on the walls, leaving them blank and naked to the eye. Thinking of it, Elena shouldn't have been too surprised about it, seeing as there was no one alive who could have made themselves at home here. The handful of Ministry employees who did come to the place once in a while didn't care to take along any personal stuff.

The tour through the rest of the cottage revealed five bedrooms – three on the ground level and two in the basements – two bathrooms, a small library and two rooms that suspiciously looked like torture chambers and Elena made sure to remember to keep them locked in the future.

All in all, it was not a bad place to stay at considering their current situation.

With a swipe of her wand, the dust covering the furniture and floor vanished and a warm fire lit the fireplace, its orange flames illuminating the living room.

Content with her work, Elena nodded and proceeded to lay every charm on the island she could remember. It wasn't a difficult task per se, but it took her almost half an hour to finish before she could set off towards the wards again in order to take them down.

The Muggles would not be affected by her actions as dead magical creatures and wizards only longed for the magic within the living. It was what made them different in life, and it was what made them stronger in death.

Elena raised her hands, touched the wards ever so slightly with her left one while drawing complicated figures in the air with her wand. Ancient words in a long-forgotten language left her mouth, the magic in them leaving behind a bitter taste on her tongue as a stream of fine golden lines emitted from the tip of her wand and licked along the wards like flames.

Elena could feel the wards crumble underneath the power of her spell, she could feel the energy draining from her body and suddenly found it difficult to focus her gaze.

When the spell was done, a sudden gust of wind brought the foul smell of decaying bodies with it and she covered her nose quickly with her hand.

 _Okay, Ellie,_ she thought. _Now find the boy, no time to lose!_

The trio had already found the horcrux in the vault of Bellatrix Lestrange in Gringotts and had escaped on the back of a dragon that had served as a guard.

She didn't have much time until some of the creatures near her would find that the wards no longer existed.

Elena knew that Hogwarts was to be their next destination; she did not know, however, if they`d already made it there. It was a wild guess, but she only had enough energy for one apparition to bring them to the Between and it was her best lead.

She also knew that Longbottom would bring them to the Room of Requirements and decided that this was where she`d try her luck to catch them.

One advantage of occupying one of the higher positions in the Ministry of Death was that she had very few limits regarding her magic, similar to House Elves although she`d never degrade herself to such a low level.

With a loud _Crack_ , Elena Hopkins appeared in the desired destination in the middle of a room that looked like half of the school had set up camp there.

Immediately, she found a dozen wands pointed at her face.

"Who are you?"

She turned around.

Neville Longbottom, his wand at her throat now and with a fierce glare, had spoken up. His face was covered with small bruises that looked suspiciously like someone had hit him with a curse – or two.

She smiled at him.

"My name is Elena Hopkins," she replied politely, ignoring the wand at her throat. "I am the Head of the Department for Trans-Dimensional Travel and I am here because you're losing the war."

Her answer was straight forward, she didn't have the time for long explanations and vague statements. The children, for that's what they were in her eyes, needed to know what they were up against.

"There is no Department for Trans-Dimensional Travel in the Ministry," said Neville, narrowing his eyes. "And we're not losing the war! We're going to fight Voldemort and he will die."

He was surprisingly calm, she had to give him credit for that. It was also clear that he was the one in charge as the others seemed to simply wait for his orders.

"I work for the Ministry of Death," Elena said. It was risky, exposing her identity like this but right now, she didn't have much of a choice; this had to be done fast and smoothly. "You are losing the war because the unforeseen death of someone very important has turned the tables to your disadvantage."

"Whose death?" Asked Seamus Finnegan. "How do we know you're not lying?"

She sighed. This had been unavoidable.

"I can't give you the details, I'm sworn to secrecy," Elena explained. "I need to find Harry Potter and show him how to defeat Voldemort and I have no time to lose. Has he arrived yet?"

This proved to be more difficult than she had expected. The longer they talked, the longer the borders were unprotected.

"Don't tell her anything, Neville," Seamus said. "We don't even know who she is."

"I told you-" Elena began but was promptly interrupted by the boy.

"We heard what you said," he answered. "But how can we know that you're telling the truth?"

Elena looked at him very intensely, carefully deciding what her next step would be. Exhausting her magical abilities was not a good idea, but if it was the only way to get to Harry Potter, she had no other choice.

She pulled out her wand, black with graceful carvings, when another figure stepped out from behind the group that surrounded her.

"What do you want from me?" Harry asked.

He, too, had his wand drawn but he was less aggressive then the rest. Elena blinked once and time around them seemed to freeze. It was a spell she could only hold up for a few minutes but she needed to talk to him without anyone interfering.

"I am here to take you to the Between," she informed him bluntly. "You will return to your realm once I have told you everything you need to know. We have to go now, I have left the borders unprotected and have to seal them again."

He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Can you prove you are who you claim to be?"

He was clever, she admitted.

"I can as soon as we have crossed over," she said. "I will take you with me – by force if I have to. This situation is too delicate to ignore it."

"I want my friends to come with me," Harry said, his tone leaving no room for arguments. "I won't go without them."

"Granger and Weasley have permission to pass," Elena replied. "The others will remain here."

To her luck, he simply nodded. She unfroze the girl and the red-haired Weasley boy who looked at them with puzzled expressions.

Before any of them could argue any further, she had taken their hands and apparated them straight to where the border was.

They were greeted by the stench of decaying bodies and a thick, white mist that hadn't been there when she'd left.

"Shit!" Elena swore, glad the Minister wasn't present to hear her slip. "I will rebuild the walls now, do not leave your positions or the consequences will be irreparable."

She raised her hands, similar to when she had brought down the wards, drawing complicated figures in the air with her wand but the words and motions differed. The magic didn't taste bitter in her mouth, it tingled and filled her with warmth. Golden sparks burst from the tip of her wand, forming a flow of light that slowly spread around them and created a massive wall of protection.

When she had finished the spell, Elena wobbled slightly on her legs and Harry caught her before she could fall to the ground.

"Hold my hands," she instructed them, panting from the effort of rebuilding the wards. "The distance will be too far to walk."

She apparated them to the living room in the cottage and let herself sink onto one of the sofas around the table.

"Where are we?" asked Hermione who looked around curiously. "It feels… different. Cold… and lifeless."

Elena laughed bitterly. "We're in the Between, a realm between the world of the living and the dead. This cottage is on an island called Cauldron Isle in the middle of the Spiral River. We should be safe here."

"Why are we here?" Ron eyed her wearily.

"I have already explained it to Mr. Potter here," she motioned toward Harry. "Maybe he can fill you in while I summon the rest of the group and prepare the meeting."

She took a deep breath and crossed the living room, still unsteady from the loss of energy, to fetch the books and invite the others into the cottage.


End file.
